Chapter 2: The Weeping man

Summary:

Neville feels intimidated and Gomez really can't handle being separated from his children.

Notes:

You guys are the best, i wasn't expecting so much support

Sorry for how long it took to write the chapter, in my defense i have ADHD lol

Seriously though, i didn't want the chapter to be as short as the first one so i kept writing, and the characters did what they wanted and not what i wanted, Gomez is the best father.

Kudos for ZeroSpiral, she's an absolute trooper for putting up with me even though she's sick, let's hope she gets better soon.

Happy reading!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Tripping on his way out of the floo and almost breaking his nose on the floor of the train platform was definitely not how Neville imagined would be the start of his Hogwarts career.

Mind you, he hadn't imagined that he would even have a Hogwarts career, with him being an almost squib and general disappointment to his Gran, he felt her scowl towards him even before looking up. Augusta Longbottom was an imposing figure, despite not being much taller than him. She commanded respect from others by just turning a pointed disapproving look at them until they just avoided eye contact, virtually submitting to her.

Neville once saw her intimidate Lord Flint, one day when they were about to enter St. Mungo's. Lord Flint was walking out, he stopped in the middle of the entrance to sneer at them without realizing who they were. His grandmother just glared at him until he seemed to recognize the matriarch, shrinking in on himself. He held the door for them both, she made sure to step on his foot with her cane for his rudeness.

Augusta Longbottom was dressed in a pale egg white cashmere dress robe. Which clashed horribly against her large red handbag and her large wide brim green witch hat, that carried on top of it a just as large taxidermized vulture. Neville still remembers when Karma was alive with a shudder, thank Merlin for small mercies, the vulture was always watching him like she was waiting for him to drop dead so she could have a meal. Sometimes he could swear the stuffed bird still somehow blinked.

Augusta tsked as she started to wipe the ash off him. Her wrinkles belie her power. She was still spry at the age of 88. Her gray hair has likely been there ever since the wizarding wars she had fought and survived in in most part. What hadn't turned gray by the stress of war, became gray by the stress of his parents being a bit more than hollowed husks, and maybe a few were for Neville.

He didn't show any magic until he was nine years old, when one of his devil's snares grabbed uncle Algie who was once again trying to scare the magic out of him. His plant didn't appreciate its favourite human being sneaked upon and decided it would take the matter in its own hands, or tentacles in this case.

Aside from being a bit banged up, Algie Longbottom couldn't help but sigh in relief for his great-nephew's magic finally making its appearance, especially since the plant was starting to strangle him and his wand had slipped his grasp. The panicked ''NO!" followed by a wave of wild magic startled the devil's snare, which promptly dropped the man on his arse. When Neville ran towards him asking if he was alright and apologizing for the plant, who recoiled offended since it was only trying to help, Algie could only hug him and laugh out loud declaring the boy could have whatever dessert he wanted during tea. As he was leaving the greenhouse the elder saw in the corner of his eyes the boy soothing and thanking the devil's snare that caressed his hands in forgiveness.

Before Neville could delve into forlorn thoughts about his parents not being able to be there to see him off on his most auspicious day, and even yet, before his Gran had a chance to berate him for being so clumsy, they heard a scream by the train. Quickly turning, she pulled her wand from her sleeve ready to defend her grandson from whoever would cause him harm. With a Protego on the tip of her tongue, Augusta's battle worn brain suddenly screeched to a halt with the scene in front of her.

Where she expected a dark wizard attacking the muggleborns, or a dangerous familiar who escape its cage and was wreaking havoc amongst the families, she found a portly man on his knees, with a manic gleam in his eyes looking at the Hogwarts Express, he had his hands raised in worship towards the gleaming scarlet steel vehicle.

"Oh look Tish, it's a 4-6-0 steam engine, with four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the absence of trailing wheels this beauty reaches 96 mph", most of people on the platform felt incredibly discombobulated when the man started crying. "Tish, it's magnificent ! What would I do to be able to ride it, and be part of a derailing and die gloriously under the iron and fire." He sprang up and ran towards the train, trying his best to hug the locomotive that, to the astonishment of all the bystanders, released more steam as if it was puffing its chest, preening like a peacock with the compliments it was receiving from the strange weeping man.

Whilst most of the platform occupants were confused, and somewhat horrified of his apparent desire to die in a derailing. What looked to be the man's family, by the way they were dressed and how pale they were in comparison to everybody on the platform, only rolled their eyes, without a doubt completely accustomed to his exuberance.

"Father, let go of the train, you are not allowed to actually ride it, do not grow attached. What would mother feel like if you have eyes only to a smoke machine?", a tiny wisp of a girl with wild black hair dressed in black muggle jeans, black dragonhide boots and a white button up under a black jumper, approached the man.

The man sniffed and turned around, "But it's not a smoke machine my little winter storm, it's a steam engine, just like that L steam engine in Tennessee, that was pulling a freight train and exploded in march of 1930, it was magnificent, it killed 4 trainmen and 2 hobos."

The girl crossed her arms and raised her chin, her eyes glaring into her father's, "Every engine is a smoke machine if you operate wrong enough, don't play coy with me father, I am not Pugsley."

The girl's lack of emotion in both voice and expression made Neville shift nervously on his feet, is that really the kind of classmate he would have? He was not that confident, maybe Gran would agree he was not ready yet and let him prepare for one more year at home.

"Mon Cher.", a tall woman beckoned the man over who, like an over eager puppy, perked right up and bounded towards her. "How about we let Winter get her things on the train, and next time when we pick her up for Christmas we talk to the conductor, maybe you'll be allowed to explore the train then, what do you think?"

She stroked his face and while he leaned into the affection, his eyes turned teary anyway.

"Oh cara mia, we won't have our lighting strike with us for All Hallows eve. How depressing, what more torture can this school possibly inflict on this family? It's tearing us apart, my love."

"We shall survive my darling, Winter will be alright.", She inclines her forehead against her husband's and he hugs her by the waist, pulling her closer.

Neville felt flustered watching the couple hold each other in such a blatant public display of affection. Purebloods were known to hold themselves to the archaic looser style of 18th-19th century Regency dressing and propriety. Most marriages were still made for power, money and prestige. And not for love.

That his parents had the option to choose and marry for love, was beyond luck. He couldn't help himself and fell once again into wishful thinking, wondering if his parents were so much in love and affectionate with each other. He quickly recoiled, 'Hopefully not like that.', when the husband kissed each finger of one of the woman's hands and started his ascension towards her face via kisses in her arm.

A foreboding feeling crawled its way up his spine, screaming at him that he, without a doubt, did NOT want to see what happens when the man reaches his wife's neck. So he quickly looked away, searching for the wild haired girl, apparently named Winter from what he heard the couple call her, only to find that she was not there anymore.

Looking around, he found her near an enormous man that looked like a cadaver that somehow hadn't decided if it was dead or alive yet. She was too far away to be heard, but the man was nodding at her and groaning in response. Neville saw an older student, probably a prefect if the badge on his shirt was anything to go by, pluck up what he assumed was their famed Gryffindor courage and dared to approach the behemoth of a man to offer his help. And immediately changed his mind when the man simply picked up the trunk with the chest and cage on top of it, as if it wasn't heavy in the slightest. With his mouth wide open in shock, the prefect watched the man accommodate the girl's trunk, chest and cage into the compartments of the train, turn around and occupy himself with rolling the trolley back to where all trolleys were.

A girl that looked like Winter's twin, but with braids wearing a black dress with white flowers scattered around the clothing, approached the couple that was once again gazing into each other's eyes like nothing else existed.

"Good news everyone, Pugsley is gone."

The woman just looked at her, "I know that tone of voice, retrieve your brother, at once."

Winter stalked to her twin's side and sighed, "You are weakening the gene pool."

Their mother just raised an eyebrow, and Neville was fascinated by this kind of silent communication between the members of the family. The girls blankly stared back, exchanged glances when the woman didn't budge and nodded minimally as response, making the woman smile victoriously.

"Very well then, even if at this point he should have been able to free himself.", Winter's sister walked to the edge of the platform, and simply dropped on the tracks in front of the locomotive. The girl walked on the tracks and pulled a knife from somewhere and freed the boy that, only now Neville realized, was tied down in front of the train. They were all dangerous, completely insane, and their parents were just shaking their heads fondly. Certainly Gran would let him stay at home, where it was safe.

"Winter, come with me, my little fire ant.", the father ushered Winter to the side and went down on one knee in front of her to look her in the eye. Neville saw the man offer one of his hands towards the girl who thought for a second before putting her hand on his. He couldn't hear the conversation from this far away, but he could see the man's eyes fill up with tears. Slowly, he tried to get near to hear what was being said, his curiosity getting the best of him.

"While you are too young to have your own, you must have hers.", the portly man put his hand on the internal pocket of his suit, and retrieved a black box from within. Neville tried his best to peek into the box when it was presented to the young girl.

Trevor, his toad, decided that that was the perfect moment to try an escapade and jumped out of his pocket, making his owner startled and give chase to him. Augusta exhaled tiredly and trailed after her clumsy grandson.

"TREVOR, COME BACK!"

He tried to jump on the toad, but the amphibian was incredibly slippery. Getting up quickly and going after Trevor, the boy failed to see where he was going. Slamming head first on the cadaver man, who didn't move one inch, had Neville falling back on his arse. Luckily, Trevor was caught mid-jump by the boy who was tied to the tracks a few minutes before. Not so lucky though, Neville had collided with the family he was observing and feeling intimidated by.

"Oh, are you alright? Lurch help him up." He heard the woman's voice, and suddenly was grabbed under his arms, like a little kid, and deposited on his feet by Lurch. Before he could stutter a thank you, he felt his grandmother's hand on his shoulder.

"Neville Longbottom, what did I say about running?" Augusta huffed.

"S-sorry Gran, but Trevor escaped, I had to get him before he got into trouble." He whines back with his head hanging low.

"This toad is yours? How delightful, what a great familiar to give to a young boy." The mother smiled endearingly at him. She continued, "And what an impressive specimen you got on your hat, a Gyps fulvus, correct?"

Augusta blinked, people generally were intimidated by Karma's stuffed body on her hat, this woman and her children, by the way the girl and boy were looking curiously at the bird, looked genuinely interested.

"Yes, Karma was my familiar. When she died I couldn't bear to part with her." The matriarch found herself talking about Karma, and how loyal she was. "I'm Augusta Longbottom, pleasure to meet you. This is my grandson Neville Longbottom."

The other woman, who was smiling gently whilst listening to her rumbling about her beloved vulture, nodded more gracefully than many entitled purebloods the elder knew. "It's an absolute delight to meet you, I'm Morticia Addams, these are my children, Wednesday and Pugsley Addams." She points to the man and Winter approaching, a sniff made Neville look at them and saw the man dab his eyes on a black handkerchief.

"This is my husband, Gomez Addams, and my other daughter, Hermione Addams."

Neville's curiosity peaked, now he wanted to know why Hermione was called Winter, or why the children, even though they were so violent with each other, were so assured of themselves, holding their head high and proud. Beyond being absolutely terrified of all that confidence and probable body harm, he felt his magic pulling him into their spooky orbit.

The name Addams itched in a distant part of Augusta's brain in an uncomfortable way, she knew she heard that name before, it was important, she could feel it. The girls nodded solemnly and the boy waved at her when each of their names was cited, Gomez smiled happily saying it was a pleasure to meet the famed Augusta Longbottom and kissing the air above her knuckles. He complimented her on keeping Karma around even after death had claimed the bird, and told her about his brother's vulture, Muerto, a big cinereous vulture that upon his death had a statue carved in his honour. "He was family after all, and dead or alive, family is always family." Gomez Addams stately declared, she could get behind that kind of attitude.

Before the conversation could go any longer, the conductor of the train whistled, signifying the last fifteen minutes to board. After receiving Trevor back from a reluctant Pugsley, Neville said goodbye to his Gran, who hugged him and told him that she loved him and was proud of him. He held back the tears in his eyes, especially when he was hugging her back and telling her he loved her back before climbing into the train. He could not deny however that he was watching the Addams saying goodbye to Hermione from the corner of his eye.

Winter held her hand up at shoulder height towards Wednesday, separating her fingers and waited until the other girl returned the gesture, pressing her hand firmly against her sister's. They didn't say anything, like their mother, it looked like they were having a whole conversation through their eyes.

"Have a dreadful time, Winter." Wednesday retracted her hand and after a brief moment touched Hermione's wrist. "Make sure to let everyone know who they should fear.". Neville felt a terrorizing chill rush down his spine as he saw they stepped away from each other. Wednesday stepped aside, out of the way of a hurried Pugsley, who hugged his sister by her waist, burrowing his face on her shoulder with so much momentum that would have thrown Neville down, but the girl acted as if she didn't even feel the impact.

"I'll miss you, sis."

Hermione calmly cradled his face, pulling him away from her body to look at his face and clean his tears with an unexpected fondness in her eyes.

"Pugsley, I won't miss wasting hours of my day trying to drill some knowledge into your empty cranium, that said.." She suddenly tightens her hold on his temples, her eyes turning cold. "If your grades start to decline, if they slip only a little, I will personally lobotomize you since you won't have any use for your excuse for a brain" Pugsley whimpers but his eyes are wide open looking into Hermione's.

"I did not wasted so much of my life teaching you for you to let your grades slide and destroy the Addamses perfect grades praxis, am I understood?" Pugsley nodded as much as he could. "Love you too, sis."

Her father came and hugged her next, she hugged him back for a moment and by the way annoyance bled into her face she only tolerated the rest of the time he was embracing her. "You will be brilliant my little winter storm, I'll be eagerly waiting for every letter from you."

With that he started crying, again, and held her tighter. Morticia quickly intervened, pulling Gomez' shoulder to let go of the girl who she could see was losing her patience with her wailing father.

"How about you let me say goodbye to her, my love?"

"I love her so much Cara mia"

"I know Mon Cher."

"She's terrific." He sniffed on his handkerchief.

"I know darling, now how about you go stand on that corner there while I talk to Winter before she stabs you again. Just like her first day at school, do you remember? Kindergarten was so hard on you my love."

A fond smile appeared on his face, as if he was remembering a peaceful memory.

"Patricide builds character Cara mia." He chuckles before standing on the corner by Lurch's side, looking miserable for being separated all 7 feet away from his wife.

Morticia turned to Hermione and smiled softly, from her sleeve she showed a necklace to the girl with a stylized W that turned upside down was an M. "I got you something, my little lightning bolt, it has two other matches for me and Wednesday". She deposited on the girl's open palm. "It is made of obsidian, which Aztec priests used to conjure visions, it will guide you on your séances, and I read that obsidian it's great for your magic."

"Thank you mother." Hermione deftly pulled the necklace on and hid it under her clothes.

Morticia stepped forward and cradled the girl's face, kissing her daughter's head. "Don't ever doubt yourself, Winter, many will judge you and many will fall before you for their own shortcomings of challenging you. Remember, you were born destined for destruction Cassiopeia. And even though you were named after an arrogant queen, don't let arrogance be your downfall, be mindful to never underestimate your foe no matter how pathetic they look."

"Yes mother." Lurch approached and handed a black box with an iron ring on the top and a black messenger bag made of leather with her initials engraved on it to the girl who immediately swung it over her head and adjusted on her shoulder.

"I won't call you for the first weeks to let you acclimatize to Hogwarts, but I'll call you on your birthday."

Hermione nodded and hopped on board of the train that was starting to move. Morticia smiled wistfully, feeling Gomez hug her waist and her other children getting close to watch their sister leave. A lone tear trail it's way down from one of her eyes.

"Safe travels, dear Winter."

Notes:

Love the comments on the previous chapter guys.

Gomez crying all the time and Hermione is so done xD

Hermione really value good grades, hopefully Pugsley don't slip, we all know Wednesday wouldn't help him.

Morticia is sooooooo

I'm glad Augusta is not the harpy that we usually see, we dodged a bullet y'all!